📝 usncan Note: A Space Odyssey’ On IMAX Film Is The Ultimate Cinematic Experience
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2001: A Space Odyssey on a 1570 film print at the BFI IMAX is an incredible experience.
BFI
Released in 1968, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a strange, mesmeric film that retains its power to amaze. Consistently appearing on critics’ lists of the best films ever made, topping the Sight and Sound magazine directors’ list in 2022, its themes, which include the nature of man and technology run amok, appear more relevant every year.
With 2001, Kubrick rewrote the cinematic rulebook, relying on image and sound to tell the story in place of exposition (the first piece of dialogue is 31 minutes in, and the last is 35 minutes before the end).
I saw it for the first time when I was 11 years old, and it had a profound impact on me. I can recall staying up late drawing the famous Earthrise image multiple times that night, like an obsessed Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Made a year before the first moon landing, it’s amazing how much technology it presages, such as video calls, tablet computers, Instagram-like portrait screens, and, of course, AI. It also shows how far we haven’t progressed: sci-fi writer Arthur C Clarke’s impression of how we might have developed at the start of the new millennium seems hopelessly optimistic.
As a film, what’s remarkable is that it had such a profound impact, even though I had watched it on a tiny 14-inch Sony TV. I can only imagine how it would have felt had on my young mind had I seen it as I did last week – at the BFI IMAX, on the biggest IMAX film screen in the UK*, on a 1570 film print.
The “Unrestored” Version
The recent BFI presentation was exciting on two counts. First, the film print was the ‘Unrestored Version’, a new film print made in 2018 to mark the film’s 50th anniversary, made under the supervision of “Interstellar” director Christopher Nolan,
The print was struck photochemically from the original camera negative, which is remarkable if you think about it — a new print made from the master film stock that passed through the cameras as Kubrick shot the film back in 1968.
This was important to preserve the film for the next generation, as over the intervening years, the original prints of the film had, like David Bowman after he passed through the Stargate, succumbed to the ravages of time.
However, with this new print, Nolan didn’t look to “fix” anything but rather sought to recreate the experience of what it was like to watch the film in cinemas in 1968. As such, imperfections from the master have been left in, and the color grading was also redone using notes that Kubrick had left.
The print also includes the original overture that precedes the start of the film and the intermission – something that should make a comeback for longer films.
If you’re not a fan of this fetish for authenticity, then you can see the fully cleaned-up digital remaster that was also created for the 50th anniversary. This version is the basis for the highly rated 4K UHD disc release, and I also saw it projected digitally at the BFI IMAX back in 2018.
This version, however, was not digital; it was film, and not just any film – but an IMAX film print. Visually, this is the same as the regular Unrestored 70mm print but blown up onto IMAX 1570 so it can be shown on the IMAX film projector onto the BFI’s incredible 20m high screen. Of course, the film retains the 2.20:1 aspect ratio of the original but this is surely the best possible way to experience this incredible film – an IMAX 1570 print on the huge BFI screen. I’ve seen this print before, having seen it at the London Science Museum, but this was my first opportunity to see it on my favorite screen, and this is what made it a must-watch experience.
The Power of IMAX
The size of the screen here is important as it enables you to lose yourself in the experience, and you feel as if you’re falling through the Stargate along with David Bowman. With the whirr of the film projector in the booth just about audible, the authenticity of the print comes through, and a couple of times I noticed some very significant scratches in the first reel, with dust moving around and wobbly lines visible at times. Built-in flaws aside, this is still a new print, and the image was much more solid and stable compared to the original print of Star Wars that I saw at the BFI NFT1 a few months prior.
Sound is so important in 2001, and the quality of the audio in the BFI auditorium was also vital here. The beauty of the music, and the deep breathing of the astronauts the only sound for a long period, clearly an influence on Star Wars sound designer Ben Burt when he created the sound of Darth Vader a decade later.
The scale also lets you see the phenomenal detail in the models and ships, which absolutely hold up even to this day – perhaps only the backgrounds of the Earth and Moon is where modern technology could offer an improvement.
Film prints are inherently physical and therefore prone to damage, so the ability to show them should never be taken for granted. This was brought home to me when the BFI’s head of technology, Dominic Simmons, told me a story involving the film can of a 70mm print of 2001, when I was shown the interior of the NFT1 projection booth earlier this year, ahead of its Film-on-Film Festival.
Simmons explained that when he was alive, Stanley Kubrick was not happy with the state of the prints of 2001, so had refused to allow the BFI to screen it. As such, thousands of pounds were spent on getting a new print struck and, after Kubrick died, his widow and his producer gave the BFI permission to screen it on January 1st, 2001.
However, during a test run, a very significant scratch in reel three was picked up, so even more had to be spent to replace the damaged reel. It turned out that the scratch was the fault of an unwitting projectionist.
“It was actually a really small buildup of dirt on one of the bottom rollers that was really hard to find — he hadn’t realized it was there. And as it ran, it just scored. He was absolutely devastated! So, prints are fragile, and you have to be really, really careful when you’re screening them.”
It’s stories like this that make you appreciate the magic of cinema, and how each print has its own story to tell.
In London, we are spoilt, with venues such as the Prince Charles offering regular film showings, and the Science Museum currently selling tickets for a Christopher Nolan film season to give its 1570 IMAX film projector a run out. If you get a chance to see a movie projected on film, you should take it, especially if it’s in 70mm and even more so if it’s IMAX 1570.
Further reading:
EPIC By Vue Review: Is It A True IMAX Rival?
‘The Odyssey’ IMAX 70mm Tickets To Go On Sale A Year Ahead In US And UK (updated)
Nitrate Film Set To Shine At The BFI Film On Film Festival 2025
Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy Introduces BFI Screening Of Rare 1977 Star Wars Film Print
